Thread: Safe surfing

So much for storing favourite sites, how can you be sure sites you've not visited are safe? In these days of active content via Javascript and ActiveX, visiting the wrong site could be enough to compromise your security. Various internet security suites have site-ranking systems, but it's worth looking at McAfee's Site Advisor, a free extension, because it provides feedback on sites in search-engine results before you visit them. Go to www.siteadvisoLcom and install the extension to see at a glance the cunent site rating in the bottom right of the browser screen. Run a Google search and each result is passed safe or has potential problems flagged. Just hover over the Site Advisor icon next to the search result to find out what these may be.



If you do need to visit potentially unsafe sites, the No Script extension can help protect your Pc. Get it from it will block all script-based content by default. Click its icon in the bottom right ofthe Firefox window to opt to pelmit script and plug-in execution for the cunent domain or to disable No Script. It may be frustrating initially to have to pennit active content on each site, but the up side is that it makes your browser very secure. Similarly, Flash Block suppresses Flash content, which is rarely unsafe, but it can waste your time loading lengthy intros or adding sound and animations that you don't really need to see.